Chapter D: S. Warner. Allie R. Fisher (1)

1. On-ward moves the great E-ter-nal In the or-der of his plan;
2. Since by sin this earth was blighted, God has whis-pered of his love,
3. Loud-er speaks his love in Je-sus, Heav-en sweet-ly chants his fame;
4. Yet the world is wrapped in slumber, Loud-er raise the trumpet's
blast;
5. In the cag-es of de-cep-tion Souls are pin-ing to be free;

Loud-er, near-er rolls the thun-der Of his aw-ful word to man.
Dreams and vi-sions by his proph-ets Breathed of mer-cy from a-bove.
Earth re-ceives its glo-rious Sav-ior, Hal-le-lu-jah to his name!
Oh, in mer-cy let it thun-der, Ere the day of mer-cy's past.
Quick-ly sound the proc-la-ma-tion Of the glo-rious ju-bi-lee.

CHORUS.

Loud-er, loud-er, hal-le-lu-jah! See the glo-rious foun-tain flow;

From the midst of heav'n pro-claim it, Oh, it makes me white as snow.
]

XIV

THE GOSPEL TRUMPET

After the Board of Publication of the Northern Indiana Eldership had passed the resolution in November, 1880, that they were willing to consolidate the Herald of Gospel Freedom with any other paper that advocated the same gospel principles, a consolidation was effected with a small paper called The Pilgrim, published in Indianapolis, by G. Haines. The Pilgrim was a monthly and had been issued but about eight times. The Herald equipment, it should be remarked, had been donated to Brothers Warner and Haines by the Churches of God in Indiana for the new paper.[9] The decision to effect this consolidation was made in a joint meeting of the Board of Publication and the Standing Committee held in Yellow Lake Bethel, Kosciusko County, Ind., Dec. 23, 1880. In an old memorandum tablet of Brother Warner's is recorded what is apparently a report of this meeting, in his own handwriting. One paragraph, which reads as follows, is of special interest:

"On motion it was agreed to consolidate the Herald of Gospel Freedom with the Pilgrim, at Indianapolis, Ind., and call the new the Gospel Trumpet."

Though he modestly does not say so, it was Brother Warner himself who suggested the name Gospel Trumpet. He felt impressed that the new paper should be called by that name, the idea being associated with such scriptures as the following:

"The great _trumpet_ shall be blown, and they shall come ... and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount" (from Isa. 27:13). "The Lord God shall blow the _trumpet_, and shall go with whirlwinds" (from Zech. 9:14).

A scripture containing the word "trumpet" always appeared in the heading of the paper. After a few years the heading contained the design of a flying angel blowing a trumpet from which was suspended a scroll containing this inscription, taken from Zech. 5:2-4: "He said unto me. What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll.... Then said he unto me.... Every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and everyone that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it. I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts."

At a later date the design was changed, the angel was reversed, and the following was substituted as an inscription on the scroll: "All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye" (Isa. 18:3). For many years the heading design contained one or more angels blowing the trumpet.

Brother Warner was a man wonderfully anointed of God for a special work. Since he had received the experience of sanctification, in 1877, the Lord had been gradually revealing to him that the true and divinely intended state of the people of God was not that of being scattered in a multiplicity of sectarian divisions but of being perfectly one in Christ, not only in spirit, but in name and in visible aspect. He felt that the teaching of genuine holiness would, in connection with the light of the prophecies bearing on the subject, bring the church out into her pure, undivided state. For such a reformation he was indeed a chosen instrument of the Lord. It was God's truth he was preaching. It led, of course, to a crisis in which he received much persecution and was deserted by many. The Trumpet, he realized, was a very effectual instrument God had placed in his hands for accomplishing the great reformation-work in this evening time of the Christian era. The time was ripe. True saints of God in various places, in whom was the Spirit of the Lord, were desiring and anticipating a oneness for God's people, and when the Trumpet appeared it was just what they were wanting. The fact that it was considered insignificant and ignored in popular religious circles proved its mission none the less divine. God's work is frequently accomplished by insignificant instruments. The Trumpet shared Brother Warner's difficulties and deprivations. The description of these in the spiritual phase will be reserved for the next chapter. What we shall note here are some of the mere facts of its history.

The oldest copy of the Gospel Trumpet now in the files of the Publishing Office is of the issue of March 1, 1881. The paper began with January 1 of that year, at Rome City, Ind. Two issues were printed there, then the equipment was moved to Indianapolis. The removal occasioned some delay, so that there was no paper printed during the month of February. The new location was over N. 70 North Illinois St. The paper started as a semimonthly, at a subscription price of seventy-five cents a year. Agents were allowed a commission of fifteen cents on each subscription in clubs of five or upwards. Its object was stated as being, "The glory of God in the salvation of men from all sin, and the union of all saints upon the Bible." It was a four-page, five-column paper of about 13 by 19 inches in size. It at first contained considerable matter on prohibition; but the thing that brought it persecution and isolated it from the fellowship and sympathy of nominal professors was its teaching against sectarian divisions.

Financial privation was one of the handicaps that had to be contended with from the start. On the moving of the equipment to Indianapolis, new type to the amount of $147 had to be purchased. At this time also a new Prouty power-press costing $590 was contemplated, the old press being a Washington hand-press. It was some years, however, until a power-press was installed. In the issue of May 15, 1881, appears the following editorial:

We are experiencing that it takes a man wonderfully burned out
for God to publish a paper that is simply true to Jesus and up to
the Bible standard of salvation from all sin. A thousand points
of expediency and policy must be disregarded, and the eye fixed
on God alone. O reader, you that love God and the truth, do not
forget to pray for us. We are here in the city with a family to
support, and publishing expenses to meet, and many are withdrawing
from us because we will not sanction their idols; but God is always
present, and we fear no evil. Thus far, since the paper is all on
God's altar, he has supplied our needs. Glory to his name!

Another difficulty that had to be contended with almost from the start was the unfaithfulness of some of those associated with him. He was scarcely settled in Indianapolis when the partnership with Haines had to be dissolved, and the latter then started an opposition paper. The following editorial from the June 1 number will explain:

THE OPPOSITION PAPER

No person that has the real cause of God at heart can fail to
deplore the fact that in this city two papers are now being
published, both claiming to be holiness papers, having of course
conflicting interests.

That this state of affairs must weaken and wound this sacred cause,
and hedge up its way by destroying the confidence of the people
in the great truth of holiness, is very apparent to all thinking
minds. This being true, fearful responsibilities rest somewhere,
and the people have a right to know where.

It is a painful task to refer to the reproach that is brought
upon the pure cause of holiness; but it is largely known, and can
be remedied only by a statement of the causes and terms of the
dissolution of the Trumpet firm. Two papers in the same place with
rival interests can not both be of God--there is no use trying to
smuggle the fact.

The blame must be located, and though its location exposes personal
character, it must be done. Paul wrote even with tears of some whom
he pronounced enemies of the cross of Christ. Alas, how often the
blessed Son of God is sacrificed at the shrine of selfishness, and
sold for a few pieces of money!

The office having been donated by the Church of God in northern
Indiana, for the use of the Trumpet, we entered into a
consolidation and partnership, agreeing that "each should do one
half of the labor, pay one half of the expenses, and receive one
half of the income."

We went to work in good earnest, published two papers at Rome City,
and then shipped the office to this city.

But before it arrived we found ourself bound to a chilling iceberg,
an austere, worldly, complaining, and mere money policy. Though
rather incongenial to our feelings, we thought it probably all for
the better and were willing to go ahead; but ere long the Spirit of
God clearly indicated to us that we should not work with this man.
We gave the matter all into the hands of God, and told the Lord
that if he wished a dissolution, he should bring it about in his
own time and his own way.

We had made no note of labors at Rome City, but thought when we set
up here we should be under the necessity of doing so; but wishing
to avoid every shadow of blame for the separation that we knew
was coming, we continued to waive our right in the agreement, and
went on working for the Lord, while partner gave his time to the
Cincinnati Times-Star, with the exception of an occasional call of
a few minutes at the office.

It pleased God to withhold a competent income from the paper.
This soon wrought a divine purpose, and partner proposed to
dissolve--offered to give or take one hundred dollars, and the
party taking the office pay all the debts on the firm. Having
the will of God clearly revealed to us, we could not, without
disloyalty to God and infidelity to the brethren who donated the
office, abandon it. We also had one hundred and seventy dollars
in the office that partner did not, having released notes to that
amount against those churches when they kindly donated the office.

We remarked, however, that as the office had been given for the use
of the Trumpet, it was not right that, withdrawing from the paper,
he should ask that amount of money. But the answer was that the
Pilgrim field which had been merged into the Trumpet was worth that
to him. We therefore consented to pay the one hundred dollars to
satisfy him for the field. But when we remarked that he of course
would feel himself under obligations not to start another paper
here, both because of the amount received for the field, and for
shame's sake, as it could only expose the cause to reproach, we
were surprized that he would not make a fair promise. We insisted
upon it as our right, and he remarked finally that he did not think
he would start another. Just then the Spirit said, "Trust it in the
hands of the Lord, God will himself manage the matter." From that
time we said no more about it....

We feel that our skirts are clear from the harm that holiness must
suffer from this bad example to the world. And if God can bless the
little opposition sheet (for such is the spirit of its first issue)
we shall be thankful.

Bless the Lord! We have nothing to fear, because we have nothing
to lose. The Trumpet is indeed all burned up for God; but out
of its ashes shall continue to rise honest, holy, God-fearing
pilgrims, instead of "happy pilgrims" who rejoice in unrighteous
gain. God is now on trial. He is our only resource. On the other
hand, a crafty policy slyly gets up a little paper, changes the
association meeting from =home= to Terre Haute, presents it to
the congregation, gets =four votes= in its favor, then himself
pronounces it adopted; is elated that he was "sharp" enough to get
the one hundred dollars and the field also, and now boasts that he
will take away the Trumpet subscribers. O Lord, pity and save such
a one for Christ's sake!

Just now we feel a deeper concern for his salvation than for all we
may suffer through his competition. Though doubtless we shall lose
some readers through this assumed organ of the State association,
a thing that lives only in name, and whose head, professing to be
called to labor in the vineyard of the Lord as a gospel minister,
prefers the vineyard of the worldly paper as more lucrative, we are
thankful that the Gospel Trumpet rests only upon God and its own
merits.

Our Father in heaven still owns the universe. Truth has not lost
its power, neither have the =four votes= cast at Terre Haute
dethroned the Almighty. Halleluiah! Jesus reigns.

After dissolution of partnership with Haines, Brother Warner was supplied with a colaborer in J. C. Fisher, who took a half interest, and was very effectual in starting the work in Michigan, where he resided.[10]

Illustrative of the poverty of the Trumpet in its infancy as well as the construction of the first publishing office, is another editorial from the June 1 number here given. The location of this new office was on Brother Warner's lot at 625 West Vermont St., adjoining his residence.

AN OFFICE FOR THE TRUMPET

As we have over a mile to walk to our office and have to pay $5 a
month for rent, we felt led of the Lord to build an office on our
lot. We had a small stable that would afford some material, and,
trusting that God would send help, we began to tear it down in
the name of the Lord. So the other day a dear old saint who is a
carpenter came to inquire what we had to build with. We told him,
when he said he had some lumber to add, also door and plenty of
windows, which he would give very cheap, and give work also.

We are now looking to God for some means, perhaps thirty dollars,
to buy shingles and some other material. Now, dearly beloved
reader, as both our family duties and the necessity of curtailing
expenses, as well as saving time, require us to build this office,
it may be that on account thereof we shall not be able to issue
a paper for the 15th of June. Please remember this and do not be
disappointed if no paper reaches you. There are two other reasons
why it will be somewhat difficult to issue the next number. First,
we have a tabernacle in operation and we desire to work all we
can in these direct efforts to save souls. And, second, we think
of taking charge of the office and doing most of the work on the
paper ourself hereafter; and having but a slight experience in
compository work, we shall need to have more time on the first
paper. But withal we shall issue a paper if possible. If the Lord
has given you a few dollars for the office, send it on. Amen.

In explanation of why he was not able to issue the paper regularly he writes as follows for August 15 of that same year:

The announcement that the paper would be on time would have been
carried out so far as the work on the paper is concerned, but
it did not please the Lord to send us the means to purchase the
paper, hence the delay. Well, we are willing that God should stop
the Trumpet altogether if he will. It belongs wholly to him, and
so do we, and, bless God, we have nothing to say about it. Oh,
how perfectly dead to all self in the matter! We will say to our
readers that the Trumpet shall only be issued as the Lord furnishes
the means; every two weeks if possible, if not, let all know that
it was not in our power to do so, and that all our subscribers
shall have the worth of the money paid. Owing to the past delays
and the fact that we are led to attend some camp-meetings, we skip
one number with the present issue.

In the November 1 number we notice more privation.

We did not move, neither were we able to plaster our office.
How then do you think we managed to get out this paper? We will
tell you. Dear Wife tendered her kitchen to the Lord for the use
of publishing salvation. Praise the Lord! By thus crowding in a
sufficient amount of the office to get along for the winter we
shall save fuel, and the expense of finishing the office until
next fall. Thank God, we are willing to get along any way for
Christ's sake, so that we may fulfil our mission and publish truth
and righteousness. We are not at all mortified at these humble
facilities from which the Trumpet goes forth to its readers. Christ
started his earthly mission from a manger. Oh no, we are not
ashamed to let all men know that the Trumpet is published in the
rear of a small cottage. God's presence makes the whole domicil
sacred. Oh, how wonderfully he pours out his glory on our souls in
this work!

On the other hand, there were others in whom God had planted a love for the truth. Among these was Brother Warner's faithful printer. God had preserved a few who should contribute sufficient to the paper to keep it going.

HOW IT LOOKS TO OTHERS

We know that many think it big to be an editor, hence before and
ever since we entered upon this work we have feared and dreaded
being actuated by such motives. When we go out to work in the field
and we just tell God to let the Trumpet stop if it is his will and
we will keep right on evangelizing, the Spirit's voice soon compels
us to return to this sacred charge.

Once when we had the office up in the city, God tried us
thoroughly. We had no money to pay the printer, and he was out of
meal-tickets, which must be paid in advance. We were sent for to
come to a meeting in Terre Haute. A brother wrote that he would
pay our fare, so we borrowed the money and went down on Saturday
morning. We told the Lord that if he did not want the paper to
continue, to let the printer leave and get work somewhere else. As
we walked from the depot to the office on our return, Monday eve,
we said, If that young man is in the office it is the wonderful
dealing of God. We entered and found him cheerfully working away.
On Saturday he ran the press all day without a bite to eat. As he
told us this our heart was melted. We entered our little sanctum
and poured out our soul to God, and he sent the Spirit as the dews
of heaven upon our heart.

When we started for the Camargo camp-meeting, we had a few dimes.
Having been provided with a free pass, through the kindness of
Brother ----, who wrote that for months he had not thought of the
camp-meeting without seeing us on the program and that we must
be there without fail, we left with Wife all our change but two
nickels. Told our printer that as we had no money to give him he
might quit if he saw fit and hunt a position where he could get
his pay. We remarked that as the Trumpet was not ours we had no
choice whether it lived or died. Well, it cost us five cents to
reach the depot by street-car, and the other nickel to carry us
and baggage from the train to camp-ground, so we just had enough.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Though we were brought
there by the direction of God's Spirit through Brother ----, the
high priest in charge, probably out of self-interest, gave us no
place in the pulpit. But God gave us a field to work in, and the
hearts of the "people who do know their God," and, blessed be his
name, in that meeting he gave us over sixty-one dollars. So the
Trumpet still sends out the certain sound. Here is a sample of many
letters received the last few months. It will show how others see
the Trumpet in relation to God's will and Satan's dread:

"Ah yes, Brother Warner, it is the Trumpet the devil wants stopped.
You may evangelize all you please, so the Trumpet goes under, and
the devil doesn't care. Do stand by the Trumpet at all hazards."

Of course we know that all such expressions relate to the awful and
offensive truth of God that we give place to in the Trumpet, and
not to any ability we possess to write or conduct a paper. We are
too sorely and constantly pinched by a sense of our own ignorance
to think anything else.

In the November 15 number, under the heading, The Trumpet Will Go On, we have the following:

God has blessed us with excellent health and strength. Praise his
holy name! We can work without apparent fatigue from 5 A. M. to
11 P. M., and we propose doing so, by the continued help of God.
We feel that the gates of hell can not stop the truth. And if we
can not issue the paper regularly every two weeks, we will issue
as often as we can, and give everybody his or her full number of
papers. The Lord holds us to this work, and he can not forsake us
in the work whereunto he has called us. Let all the readers of the
Trumpet obey the voice of the Spirit of God, and there will be
means both to enlarge and carry on the paper for the glory of God.
Oh, if the God of salvation could but reach some who are blessed
with means and draw out about two hundred dollars it would pay all
the Trumpet debts, get the necessities to enlarge the paper, and
provide a good little stock of paper to start with. We will work,
and pray, and trust, and God and the dear people will provide the
means.

At the beginning of the second year the price of the Trumpet was raised to one dollar.

For some time before the Trumpet raised to one dollar, nearly
everybody sent us one dollar instead of seventy-five cents.
Thus the Lord has fixed the price, and he will provide for its
enlargement.

The enlargement came with the first issue in February. It was made a six-column, four pages--15 by 22. In the first issue of the new size we find the following editorial:

We printed two thousand papers this issue. It is quite a task on
our hand-press; but, praise God, he gives us blessed health and
strength, and we are perfectly satisfied to work on with the means
the Lord has furnished, until he sees proper to give us others.

Early in the autumn of 1882 the publishing office was moved to Cardington, Ohio. Here was a congregation of saints among whom the publishing work could be better supported. A very pleasant office, warm and well lighted, was rented for thirty dollars a year. Brother Warner acknowledges his enjoyment of the great kindness, love, and cooperation of the true saints there. It seems, however, that even there the work did not make much progress. The old press had by this time become very unsatisfactory. Brother Warner sought to hire his printing work done elsewhere, but his effort resulted in his having to print the first issue of 1883 on a job-press, with the paper reduced in size to a four-column 11 by 15. The price was dropped to seventy-five cents, then to fifty cents. The following editorial will give an insight to his situation:

THIS LITTLE TRUMPET

Having had our last issue printed on our neighbor's steam-press, we
concluded it would pay us to trade our old press on a jobber and
have them print the paper regularly.

Our chief reason for so doing was this: in the time that it would
take us to print them on the slow old press, we could make more
on job-work than would pay the printing. But, behold, when our
neighbors learned that we were getting a job-press, they seemed
to think we were intruding on their territory, and not having the
utmost confidence in their typographical ability they thought
to make us pay a sort of royalty for the privilege of doing
job-work here, by raising the price of printing the trumpet from
four dollars to eight dollars an issue; and while we conceded
the perfect right to charge that price, we were happy for the
privilege of saving that amount and printing on our job-press.

Of course, we can print but one page at a time, which makes four
impressions for a folio; and if we print as large as the Trumpet
has been, it will take eight times running through the press,
which, after all, can be done in about the same time it took to
print it in two impressions on the old press, and takes one to run
instead of three.

When the paper comes to you only half the old size we will call it
but a half number, so we will not defraud our subscribers in the
least. But we desire to send you eight pages every two weeks if we
possibly can. When we can not, please bear with us until the kind
providence of God and the liberality of the saints help us to get a
paper-press.

The eight-page proposition did not then materialize. About this time was adopted the motto, which was carried for many years: "First pure, then valiant for the truth." The home of the Gospel Trumpet was not long at Cardington. Brother Warner was desirous of having a permanent home for the Trumpet, where he would not have to pay rent. When he moved to Cardington, he did not feel that that would be the permanent place for the paper. Kind brethren in Michigan made very liberal offers and asked him to come there; but a place was opening at Bucyrus, twenty miles distant, in Crawford County. While he was in prayer pleading earnestly for God's direction, three teams drove up. It was the brethren from Bucyrus, who had come to move the office to that place and also help it out of financial difficulties. There was great joy in Brother Warner's heart as he realized that God had answered prayer and sent help. One of these brethren, D. D. Johnston, assisted in the matter of finances. He purchased a lot and furnished material with which to erect a building. His name appeared as publisher in August, 1883.

Brother Warner proceeded to build a small office on the lot at Bucyrus. In the last number printed at Cardington he writes as follows:

While you read this paper, the editor will be personally at work
erecting a house in which to carry on the work of the Lord. If we
were building a house for ourself we should want to count the cost
before commencing; but we are building this house unto the Lord,
and the earth and the fulness thereof are his, hence, we need not
stop to count since he says go forward. The undertaking is wholly
by faith. While at work with our hands we shall pray without
ceasing to our heavenly Father to send us the means.

* * * * *

We have had experience enough in our business to know that we
never can carry on the paper and pay rent. It is claimed that a
paper is not self-supporting with most any number of subscribers
without receiving advertisements. Just yesterday in the office
of a temperance paper we were told by an editor and publisher
that we ought to take in one thousand dollars every year for
advertisements, and he could not see how the paper could be
carried otherwise. But, beloved, it must be carried otherwise or
not at all. Neither do we wish to do any secular job-work if we
can help it. We shall dispose of our job-press and material as
soon as possible. Now, beloved, when we shall have obtained a good
paper-press (and it is already bought, thank God) and a place free
of rent, with much self-denial and care we shall be able to send
you a paper 22 by 32 every two weeks.

Some of our dear brethren have in love censured us occasionally.
We find generally these two points, sometimes in the same letter,
namely, "Why do you not send your paper out more frequently and
more regularly?" the other, "I think you have not been on your
guard enough to keep out of debt." Well, there it is. We could have
kept entirely out of debt if we had issued fewer papers, and we
might have issued every two weeks had we gone more in debt. But no
one of our experience could possibly have issued more frequently,
with our income and slow facilities. Our dear brethren are without
a knowledge of what they are talking about. But now, beloved, as we
are in this desperate effort to get entirely out of debt and to get
situated so as to cut off much of our past expense, we hope that
all will send us the help they can.

The move to Bucyrus was made in May, 1883. About that time the first good press was purchased. It was a rebuilt Country Campbell, allowing either belt- or hand-power to be used, and costing perhaps six hundred dollars.

The trying times through which the Trumpet had to pass in its early years are known only to God. It was perhaps his design that it should be tried as gold is tried. There were always a few consecrated hearts who contributed of their means. Some put everything they had into the work. Thus the work was kept alive. Little did Brother Warner realize, when he was located at Bucyrus and the prospects looked good, that there he should go through the bitterest trial of his life. The light of the Trumpet came very near being snuffed out entirely. Bucyrus was the narrows in the Trumpet's voyage, through which it barely passed. This will be described in our next chapter.

The office of the Trumpet remained at Bucyrus nearly a year. Some brethren in Michigan were desirous of having it moved to their locality. Progress had been made at Bucyrus, but it was through the furnace of trial rather than any extension of influence. But doubtless all this experience was necessary as an equipment for greater usefulness.

The move to Williamston, Ingham County, Mich., was made in April, 1884. A Mr. Horton, a business man of Williamston, in whom the Lord had planted a love for the truth, went to Bucyrus and had the office equipment shipped. The saints in Michigan had in the meantime obtained possession of a two-story building 28 x 84, and they had it partitioned, or remodeled, to suit the need, the upper story to be used for a hall or assembly-room, the rear of the lower floor to be used for living rooms and the front for an office. Brother Warner rejoiced with tears when the work got started in its new and enlarged quarters in Williamston. The first number of the paper published there was dated April 15. From its columns we quote the following greetings:

We are happy to greet your ears once more, beloved, with the sound
of the trump of God. The devil has spent all his infernal powers
in vain to crush this work of God. We have thoroughly learned
his attitude toward us. In his hellish clamor about us for many
days, saying, 'You must give up the Trumpet,' he has clearly
committed himself against this cause, and all who are against this
dissemination of the light of God we know are on the devil's side,
either wilfully or ignorantly. Oh, how hell has poured forth upon
us! Night after night we had to leave our bed at two, three, and
four o'clock, and go to the office and cry unto God to drive away
the hosts of hell that had encamped against us. And every time the
power of God dispersed these infernal spirits of darkness, the Lord
recommissioned us to blow the Trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm
on his holy mountain, and we were made joyfully conscious of his
approving smile for not having backed down before the legions of
hell. But the devil having drawn to his side the best agents he
could ever expect to use against us, was fierce and determined to
hush the trumpet-sound of freedom from all sin and Babylon yokes.
Oh, halleluiah!

During this terrible combat with the powers of darkness, we had
to do more fighting than working, hence the work went on slowly.
We were ready to print about the first of February, then the
Lord called us by telegram to Kalamazoo, Mich. The next day our
printer accidentally spoiled the rollers, so that he could not
print. So the work lay until our return. After looking to the
Lord until he assured us that the office would be cleared from
the mortgage, we ordered new rollers, and went to work again in
the name of the Lord. About the time we were ready to print, God
sent Bro. Thomas Horton, from Williamston, Mich., who paid off the
five hundred-dollar mortgage, some other debts, chartered a car,
loaded us up, and moved office, household goods, Master Willie, and
ourself to this place. Wife and child having remained behind to
visit with friends. Moving just at the time caused a few days delay
in this issue, but now we expect to greet you regularly. Praise
the Lord! "The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, blessed
be the name of the Lord!" So said Job. If it was the devil that
took it away, he had to get a permit from God before he could
do it, therefore it was of the Lord, and "blessed be the name of
the Lord"; for when he permits the devil to take anything away he
has given to his children, he always returns fourfold. We have
understood this principle long ago, and have thrown it in the face
of the devil every time he has shown his teeth at us. Blessed be
God forever and ever! And thus hath God done unto us again. We left
an office where we were hampered up in 14 × 26 feet, and here has
God furnished a building two stories high, 28 × 84 feet, all of
which is dedicated to the Lord. It contains a large meeting-hall,
and plenty of room for office and all families connected with it.
It is, however, under repairs, and we have taken temporary quarters
for a few weeks.

Every change that was made gave occasion for new hopes for the advancement of the publishing work. Accordingly we read in the first issue at Williamston: "After one more issue we expect steam-power, and there is no telling what God will yet do for the Trumpet if the devil doesn't quit his hellish opposition." An engine was purchased during the first year at Williamston. It was of three horse-power and cost two hundred dollars. Thus, after the trying times of the first four years of its life, the Trumpet work began to make substantial progress and the reformation cause to expand and become permanent.

The next move for the Gospel Trumpet was in the summer of 1886. Near Bangor, in Van Buren County, was a yearly camp-meeting. There were many saints in the vicinity and near Grand Junction, seven miles north. At the Bangor camp-meeting in June, 1886, the subject of moving the Trumpet Office to that part of the State was considered. It seemed to be the mind of the Spirit and of all the saints that the removal should be made. A commodious and substantial building in the town of Grand Junction was offered for eight hundred dollars, or about half its worth. The saints agreed to purchase the property, and money was raised to pay moving-expenses. An encumbrance of five hundred dollars on the machinery was also paid off. Accordingly it was decided to move. One freight-car held the entire outfit of office material, machinery, and household goods.

Grand Junction, "where two lightning tracks lay crossing," was a small town of a few hundred inhabitants, the junction of the Chicago and West Michigan (now the Pere Marquette) and a branch of the Michigan Central Railways, ten miles from South Haven on the lake and thirty miles west of Kalamazoo. This became the permanent home of the Gospel Trumpet during twelve years of its history.

Before the move to Grand Junction, Bro. S. Michels, of South Haven, assumed with his means a portion of the financial responsibility. Being thus directly connected with the publishing work, his name appeared as publisher, which position he held till relieved by N. H. Byrum, in 1895.

About a year after the publishing office was located at Grand Junction, the publishing work, and the church as well, suffered the defection of J. C. Fisher, who had been on the editorial staff and had been useful in the ministry.[11] He was succeeded as assistant editor by E. E. Byrum, who remained on the staff for many years, and after Brother Warner's death became editor.

The Gospel Trumpet was a mighty factor in the reformation work, a very effectual means of spreading the truth. At Grand Junction the Office grew to a substantial printing-plant, sending out tons of literature. Books were printed, a children's paper was started, and the Trumpet became a weekly. It was here that Brother Warner's death occurred, in 1895. We close this chapter with the publishing work located at Grand Junction. Brief reference to its present status will be made in another chapter.

FOOTNOTES:

[9] It seems the idea prevailed within the Eldership that "every member should be under the control of Christ alone in the performance of work appointed him." They said, "We believe that the Lord wishes not his church burthened and perplexed with financial cares. Therefore, Resolved That it is not good that she should own and control a printing-office." They said further, "We are willing to assist and support these two brethren in the joint publication of the Gospel Trumpet provided they are permitted to have full control of the same and so long as they keep themselves and the paper wholly in the Lord's hands and to his glory."

They, of course, did not understand that by means of a corporation, board of trustees, or other legalized body, the church could control its printing business and yet not be "burthened and perplexed with financial cares."

[10] See next chapter.

[11] See Chapter XV for further mention of this.

XV

THE CRISIS[12]

True to prophetic fulfilment, the time was at hand for the restoration of the church to her normal state of unity and holiness. The scattered condition of God's people in the various sectarian denominations was not always to continue, for such could not be the ideal state of the church; it could not be her final state in which Christ could expect to receive her as his bride. For her there was a better day at hand. From Romish night to the light of justification by faith, possessed among Protestant sects generally since the sixteenth century reformation, had been a great step upward. Also the Wesleyan reformation, bringing in the light of perfect holiness as a Christian attainment subsequent to regeneration, marked an advance for the truth in its progress by stages unto the end of time. There needed to be yet another step, another reformation, which should bring the church to her fulness of glory, and visualize her unity and solidarity.

It would seem that the holiness movement that arose in the sixties and seventies should have accomplished this, but it served only as an approach to it. True holiness indeed destroys the elements of sectarianism, and forbids a continued state of division among Christians. But the holiness movement, as such, came to have holiness only nominally for its object. It undertook no antagonism to sectarian divisions, though it deplored them. It stood for nothing more than holiness as a subject to be taught and experienced, and satisfied itself as best it could to remain within the denominations. It drew back when the real issue came, and in consequence it has long been dissipated in the sects, having for forty years accomplished little or nothing toward bringing God's people into unity.

Christian unity can never be brought about within the sects nor in connection with any recognition of allegiance to them. It absolutely can be effected only out of and away from the sects, by obedience to God and a severance of sectarian ties. Since true Christian unity is incompatible with sects, and since coming out of sects is opposed by the sect spirit and invites persecution by the sects, the only course for the people of God to take who have received the light on the true church is to cut loose from human institutions and abide in Christ alone, even though it places them in a relation hostile to the so-called churches. For those first leaving the sects there was no body of saints already called out to which they could be added. What could it mean to them but a crisis? And what would it constitute in the progress of events but a reformation? But the Spirit of the Lord was thus leading. Since sects are hostile to the movement out of sects, the Spirit of the Lord becomes necessarily hostile to them; for he indeed leads his people out of sects. But the time had come. God's spiritual ones were looking and longing for some development or other by which they would cease to be divided in sectarian bodies. No one had put it into their minds; their anticipation of it was prompted by the Spirit of God, which was in them. There needed some one to sound the trumpet of the Lord, some one to take the lead and make a positive declaration against the sin of division, some one through whom God could voice the call, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" (Rev. 18:4).

God had in Brother Warner prepared just such an instrument. His was the spirit of a reformer. He shunned not to declare God's judgments. His ministry had a definite message, and represented the burden of God for the purity and unity of his church. Looking back upon Brother Warner's career it would seem, as the writer has already intimated, that his connection with the Church of God (Winebrennerian), which assumed to have no creed but the Bible and to be indeed the true church of God, had doubtless served to emphasize to him the true church ideal and to shape his course along right lines. And his rejection by the Ohio Eldership for the preaching of holiness awakened him to see that that body was not what it claimed to be, but was, after all, only a humanly ruled institution, only one sect among the many. The light he already had on the church was sufficient to forbid his reuniting with them. Thus the so-called Church of God had contributed to him the right idea of the church, and the holiness movement had brought to his understanding the line on which God would bring out a pure church, namely, the line of holiness; and thus was the divine Hand leading him and fitting him for the work to which he was called.

We can only imagine what it meant to step out on God alone and preach the divine judgments against the apostate religions of the day, to decry the evils of denominationalism, and to undertake on that same line the publication of a paper. That his work was despised and that Satan undertook to crush it in its very beginning can not be wondered at. Its humbleness and apparent insignificance looked uninviting to the worldly-minded; but the deep spirituality and divine manifestations that characterized it were a sufficient vindication to those who were capable of spiritually discerning the truth. There was something that said, "This work is of God." There was a sense of spiritual freedom and of love and Christian fellowship that bore convincing testimony to those who would but listen to the dictation of the Spirit that this is indeed the truth.

But Brother Warner was not alone. God had reserved his thousands who no longer were bowing the knee to Baal. From them he received encouragement and support, though for a few years it seemed his work had to go through the crucible of trial. Accordingly we trace his difficulties and sorrows, as well as his victories, until the cause becomes fully established in the earth.

From what we learn of Brother Warner's earlier views and attitude, he never had a party spirit; he never was a sectarian. Even from his early ministry the love and fellowship that exists among the people of God he recognized as the paramount bond of Christian union. After his conversion, when dealing with the question of what church he should join, he is found casting about to determine which one represented the real church of God. As the followers of Winebrenner had the right name, and seemed to him to be correct in doctrine, he was led into that denomination. With the insufficient light he then possessed he probably failed to see the man rule that prevailed, instead of the Holy Spirit rule that characterizes the divine, theocratic government in the true church of God. He discovered, of course, the clash of this man rule with the free, independent inclination of the Holy Spirit, by which he preferred to be led. But he bore with it patiently, believing that he was in the true church; and it took years to discover to him that the body to which he belonged was but a sect.

It was through the attainment of the Bible standard of holiness that he was gradually led into the truth respecting the church and sects. Early in 1878 he wrote: "The Lord showed me that holiness could never prosper upon sectarian soil encumbered by human creeds and party names, and he gave me a new commission to join holiness and all truth together and build up the apostolic church of the living God." He soon began to receive light on the Scriptures, which revealed to him that the church was to be restored to her primitive glory in the evening of the dispensation. The chapter on a Spiritual Shaking, taken from his book, clearly shows that when the chapter was written (1879) he understood that God was going to bring out a pure church. He published this in 1880, which became the date from which the present epoch of the church may be reckoned.

It should be remembered that during this time he was connected with the Northern Indiana Eldership; but as this was a body already separated from the old Eldership because of their purpose to keep on the Scriptural basis, he really believed that this body was the true church, for that was its claim. Thus he was really out of sectism in heart and was associated with a body claiming to be the church of God. During the last year (1880) of the Herald of Gospel Freedom, when it was fully under his editorial charge, its columns, while teaching holiness, breathed the principles of the one true church. One of its stated objects was "the union of all true believers in the Spirit of God and upon the inspired Word." Because of insufficient light on the governmental aspect of the true church, he was slow to discover that even the new Eldership was only a body ruled by men. As light came on the Holy Spirit government, he looked upon the man rule elements in the Eldership as inconsistencies that needed removal. It was human machinery that he thought needed to be dispensed with. We must concede, therefore, that in the meantime he was, to all intents and purposes, out of sects.

We speak of this period as the crisis because he took such a bold, uncompromising stand against sects and taught holiness and the principles of the church with such thoroughness that it seemed to awaken every satanic element that had been slumbering under the guise of false profession. People had either to accept the truth or go into darkness. To him it meant the break-up of old relations, the drawing of new lines of fellowship, exposure to persecution, and everything that might befall the career of a reformer. As the teaching of the resurrection and the repudiation of circumcision constituted the offence of the cross in Paul's day, so the preaching of the Bible standard of holiness and the renouncement of all sects became the offence of the cross at this time. We shall give several selections from the earlier issues of the Trumpet that are representative of its teaching. In the issue of Mar. 1, 1881, we have the following:

BRANCHES

Where in the Bible do we find the idea of sects being branches, as
people talk about? "What branch of the church do you belong to?" is
a common expression in these times of antiscriptural language and
practise. Why do not people read their Bibles better and learn that
every individual believer is a branch in Christ--John 15?

If a whole sect is a branch, then the individual must be a
sub-branch; but this would make each one dependent upon the
sect for his union with, and life from, Christ. This would be
second-hand salvation. We should not like to risk the coupling--I
prefer a direct union with Christ.

Taking Christ's parable of the Vine and Branches, there is but
one way to represent branch sects; that is, imagine the branches
adhering directly to the vine but pressed together and tightly
bound into several bunches. Thus drawn together each bundle would
have the appearance of a branch; but upon closer examination it
would be found to consist of many branches each adhering to the
vine, except a good many dead sticks, that had been killed by the
unnatural confinement, and had rotted loose from the trunk.

We think it is the great business of the pure gospel sword of
holiness to cut those soul-killing chords, that the Father may
purge the several branches, and that they may all straighten out in
natural position--live, grow, and bear fruit unto holiness.

His account of how he was led to sever his connection with the holiness association, which he began to see was but a milder form of sectism, is given in an editorial for June 1, 1881.

THAT YE BREAK EVERY YOKE

Saturday, April 22, the hand of the Lord was heavily upon our soul,
had no relish to converse with any one but God. Finally in company
with two brethren we went into the house of God at Hardinsburg,
Ind., and placed ourselves under the searching eye of God, when
the Spirit of the Lord showed me the inconsistency of repudiating
sects and yet belonging to an association that is based upon sect
recognition. We promised God to withdraw from all such compacts.
But being dearly attached to the holiness work, we attended the
Association at Terre Haute, and tried to have the sect-endorsing
clause removed from the constitution. Its substance is as follows,
speaking of local associations:

"It shall consist of members of various Christian organizations and
seek to work in harmony with all these societies."

We offered the following substitute: "It shall consist of, and seek
to cooperate with, all true Christians everywhere."

We had supposed that fellowship and cooperation should not exclude
any person or truth that is in Christ Jesus, and that we should not
be compelled to bow down to anything not in, nor of, Christ Jesus.

We were positively denied membership on the ground of not adhering
to any sect. And now we wish to announce to all that we wish to
cooperate with all Christians, as such, in saving souls--but
=forever withdraw= from all organisms that uphold and endorse sects
and denominations in the body of Christ.